Maximising the Impact of the Global Stocktake under the Paris Climate Agreement

Launch of the discussion series "iGST Designing a Robust Stocktake Discussion Series"

  • News 02.12.2019

The five-yearly Global Stocktake (GST) is one of the key features of the Paris Climate Agreement. The purpose of the GST is to review the implementation of the Paris Agreement in order to assess the collective progress towards achieving the purpose of the Agreement and its long-term goals. The outcome of the GST shall inform parties in updating and enhancing their climate actions.

The Global Climate Governance Research Unit of the Wuppertal Institute has been involved in two research projects analysing the potential and limitations of the Global Stocktake and developing design options for its implementation. The research was lead by Lukas Hermwille, Project Co-ordinator, and Wolfgang Obergassel, Co-Head of the Research Unit Global Climate Governance in the Energy, Transport and Climate Policy Division at the Wuppertal Institute.

The first project "The Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement: Design, Methodology and Process" has been carried out on behalf of the German Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt in German) together with partners from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the Öko-Institute and the NewClimate Institute. The new publication "Tackling the Challenges of Assessing Collective Progress for an Effective Global Stocktake – Executive Summary" syntheses key findings of the two-year project and provides an advance preview of the comprehensive project report to be published early in 2020.

Building on these insights and further contextualising them, the team contributed to the independent Global Stocktake (iGST) initiative. For its "iGST Designing a Robust Stocktake Discussion Series" Wolfgang Obergassel, Lukas Hermwille, Anne Siemons and Hannah Förster prepared the report "Success Factors for the Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement" which discusses options for how to maximise the potential impact of the GST. The report proposes three specific functions by which the GST may foster enhanced action:

  • The GST may provide guidance and signal by further specifying the objectives laid down in the Paris Agreement.
  • The GST may contribute to providing transparency and accountability.
  • The GST may foster knowledge and learning on how to effectively achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

As part of the iGST initiative, three further papers on the GST are being published in parallel by the NewClimate Institute, the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and the Climate Equity Reference Project:

  • The paper by the NewClimate Institute elaborates a set of questions that would be important to assess during the GST and assesses to what extent these questions can be answered from existing research.
  • The paper by ODI focuses on how finance for climate action can be considered during the GST.
  • The paper by the Climate Equity Reference Project elaborates how equity considerations can be integrated into all elements of the GST.

The iGST is a data and advocacy initiative that brings together climate researchers, modelers, campaigners and advocates to support the Paris Agreement. The iGST's objective is to support the official Global Stocktake and to increase its accuracy, transparency, and accountability.  

The initiative is now launching the "iGST Designing a Robust Stocktake Discussion Series". This series of discussion papers envisions the contours of an ideal Global Stocktake and suggests ways in which the independent community can help to achieve that vision. The papers are part of a multi-part research effort organised by the ClimateWorks Foundation and undertaken by seven partner organisations, each of whom are publishing their findings as a discussion series paper.


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